2025 Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW)
June 2–3, 2025
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago6045 S. Kenwood Avenue (map)
Chicago, IL 60637
Overview
The robotics field is experiencing tremendous growth as a result of algorithmic and technological advances, the availability of common, low-cost sensors and platforms, and a standardization in open-source development. These factors together with the growing community of talented, highly-trained roboticists combine to render feasible real-world applications in our homes and workplaces, and on our streets.
The Midwest Robotics Workshop (MWRW) is intended to bring together roboticists from academia and industry in and around the Midwestern United States. Building on successful workshops in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2024 it is an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share their work with others and to network, with the goal of creating a more cohesive and vibrant robotics community in the Midwest. The workshop will feature invited talks by leading researchers, and an exciting collection of oral presentations and interactive poster sessions.
If you have any questions, please contact the organizers.
Call for Participation
We invite all roboticists from the Midwest (broadly interpreted) to participate in the second annual Midwest Robotics Workshop to be held at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago (TTIC) on the University of Chicago campus (map) on June 2–3, 2025.
We encourage participants to use the workshop as an opportunity to present recent research either as a talk or during an interactive poster session. If you are interested in presenting, please submit a title and abstract summarizing your work. Since the workshop does not have published proceedings, abstracts that describe work that was previously published or is still in progress are welcome.
Keynote Speakers
Matthew Johnson-Roberson (Carnegie Mellon University)
Matthew Johnson-Roberson is director of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and a Professor in the School of Computer Science. He received a PhD from the University of Sydney in 2010. He has held prior postdoctoral appointments with the Centre for Autonomous Systems—CAS at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney. He co-founded Refraction AI, a last-mile autonomous vehicle delivery company. He has worked in robotic perception since the first DARPA grand challenge and his group focuses on enabling robots to better see and understand their environment.
Kevin Lynch (Northwestern University)
Kevin Lynch is a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at Northwestern University. His research is on robotic manipulation, locomotion, human-robot systems, and robot swarms. He is research director of the NSF Human AugmentatioN via Dexterity (HAND) Engineering Research Center, former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Robotics and the IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation Conference Editorial Board, a coauthor of three textbooks on robotics and mechatronics, and the instructor of six Coursera online courses and the associated YouTube videos forming the Modern Robotics specialization. He received the B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and the Ph.D. degree in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Speakers
MWRW 2025 will feature talks by senior researchers, early-career faculty, and students. Some of the confirmed speakers include:Designing Emotionally Intelligent and Empathetic Robots |
Cyber-Physical Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
Object Assembly: A Spatial-Geometric Reasoning Pathway to Physical Intelligence |
Social Robots for Enhancing Human Health and Flourishing |
Adaptive Model Predictive Control using Control Barrier Functions |
Bio-inspired Strategies for Designing Robotic Tails |
Locomotion via Adaptive Morphology |
High-resolution Tactile Sensing for Robotic Manipulation |
Robotic Musculoskeletal Systems via Motorized Materials |
Biomimetic, Biohybrid, and Biodegradable: Robots for a Sustainable Future |
Perceiving and Manipulating Formless Objects with the Help of Touch |
Important Dates
| May 1, 2025* | Registration and Abstract Submission Deadline (Register here) |
| May 1, 2025 | Student Lodging Grant Application Deadline (Apply here) |
| June 2–3, 2025 | Workshop |
*Note: Registration will close early if we reach maximum capacity.
Accommodations
There are several hotels nearby the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park, where TTIC is located. These include:
- The Study (a five minute walk from TTIC)
- Hyatt Place Chicago-South
- Sophy Hotel
See this list for more options, including hotels in downtown Chicago.
Lodging Grants: We will provide a limited number of grants for student lodging at a nearby hotel for the night of June 2. Please see the Registration section for information on how to apply.
Parking: Free parking is available in the commuter parking lot at 60th St. and Stony Island Ave. and free street parking on many streets near TTIC (just beware of "permit parking" and "street cleaning" signs!). Parking can be found on 61st Street (between Woodlawn Ave and Blackstone Ave), on Dorchester Street (between 60th and 61st Streets).
Registration
Registration: If you are interested in presenting your work as a poster or talk, or would like to simply attend the workshop, please sign up here. There is no cost to register. Please note that the schedule is pretty tight, so we may not be able to honor every presentation request.
Lodging Grants: We are awarding a limited number of lodging grants for students from outside the Chicagoland area who would like to attend. The grants will provide a one-night stay at a nearby hotel on June 2. Please fill out this form if you would like to apply.
Organizers
Daniel Bruder (University of Michigan)Kathryn Daltorio (Case Western Reserve University)
Ram Vasudevan (University of Michigan)
Matthew Walter (TTIC)
Last modified: March 24 2025 08:20:44